Investing in the Future of Renewable Energy- Where Do We Go From Here?

We have much to celebrate regarding the decarbonization of the Canadian energy market. After all, renewable sources of energy currently fulfill nearly two-thirds of our country’s energy demand. That’s more than most industrialized nations and certainly more than our North American neighbors. Our commitment as a nation to clean technologies is to be admired, for sure. But, when it comes to looking at Canada holistically, we at Inerjys know that we still have many opportunities and much work to do.

When we look at the previous investments in wind and solar, it is easy to see the enormous advancements that have been made in the past 10 years. Indeed, the cost of solar and wind energy keeps going down as technology advances, with BNEF predicting photovoltaic prices dropping an additional 70% by 2050 from today’s prices. Wind costs are anticipated to fall 58% over that same time. Now that we have addressed many of the core challenges of renewable energy production, viability and cost, the focus must now shift to energy management and storage to tackle the next phase of realizing a fully decarbonized nation.  

Over the coming weeks, we will present a series of blog posts that outline our vision for the future of renewable energy investment, both in Canada and around the world. As one of the most energy-rich regions on Earth, Canada has a unique opportunity to become a world leader in renewable energy. Our current capabilities to provide green power to our nation, though, are unevenly distributed, with many in our country still relying solely on expensive, dirty, diesel-based energy generation. One hundred percent of Nunavut and 50 percent of Northwest Territories residents still have no renewable energy options for their power needs. And dirty energy and resource management continue to be the choice for mining, oil, and natural gas operations.

To bring energy wealth and independence to all our nation’s citizens, we must address the many opportunities of the renewable energy market moving forward. Strategic investments are needed in energy storage, grid management, and protection of our water resources from dirty energy wastewater if we want to become the world leader in renewable energy. We will dive deeper into these promising investment verticals that are necessary for the proliferation of clean technologies around the world.

There is still an incredible opportunity for investment in the renewable energies market. By bringing renewable energy wealth to all Canadians and finding solutions that allow for the use of cleantech for all our power needs, we will not only be doing what is right for our citizens but what is right for our planet